Paris by Night: Bateaux Parisien and the Views from the Eiffel Tower

After arriving in Paris I headed straight to Notre Dame where I met my sister. While I waited I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures because the light was so gorgeous in the early evening. 

     We stayed in an Air B&B located in the 7th arrondissement and so we were within 10-15 minutes walking distance from the Eiffel Tower and Les Invalides (where the tomb of Napoleon is located). I have to say that going into the Air B&B experience I didn't know what to expect but we ended up loving the place we stayed. It was a cute little studio apartment located above a laundromat. After we very quickly (we were needed to make it to the pier to catch our boat tour) dropped our stuff off, we made our way toward the Eiffel Tower. 

For me, seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time was one of those moments in life where your breath catches in your throat and you have to pinch yourself to re-enter reality. Being in Paris was an absolute dream come true. After a few minutes of taking in our surroundings and gawking like a tourist, we hurried to the boat and hopped on just in time to see the Eiffel Tower start to twinkle. I didn't know that the Eiffel Tower did that so it was an especially fun surprise, even more so because it happened once an hour so we saw it several times.

For our boat tour we used the company Bateaux Parisien because they seemed to offer the best rate. It would have helped if we had grabbed the English audio tour before we went up to the top deck (it was freezing but the views were amazing so who cares) and found the perfect spot. Even though we weren't sure what some of the stuff that we passed was, the city was gorgeous and we really got a good layout of the city from the tour. Such an amazing experience. I can see why so many of the people I talked to before my trip recommended a river cruise. 

After the boat tour, we went up to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. I'm not afraid of heights but if you are, I don't recommend this. It was however, incredible. Paris at night is well-lit and beautiful. 

    Because of our rush when I arrived in Paris, we did not have time to eat before heading to the river cruise and so after our activities we set out to find food. Now I was warned by a Rick Steve's podcast before I came that the French have very specific hours for meals. Why I didn't take that seriously, I don't know. But we found absolutely zero food! All restaurants, bakeries, concession stands, grocery stores, etc. were closed except for alcohol service. I truly understand what the Beast from Beauty in the Beast (we watch a lot of Disney at our house) meant when he said about Belle "If she doesn't eat with me then she doesn't eat at all!" If you don't eat when the French eat, you don't eat. Luckily I had packed some Swedish Fish as an airport snack, so I survived for about 24 hours on candy. I hadn't eaten much earlier in the day because I was so excited to try French food. As I was writing up this post, I had to laugh when I stumbled upon this quote by Carlos Zafon, a Spanish novelist. "Paris is the only city in the world where starving to death is still considered an art. ''